The first step to understand a passage is to seek God's wisdom in prayer. The Holy Spirit is the author of all Scripture. Therefore there is only one original intended meaning.
Zach; initially in our discussion of this pericope, you urged me that all who followed Jesus are called to the same standard. The standard after prayerfully reading the passage is found in verses twenty-six and twenty-seven. If anyone comes to Me and does not [n]hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
And the passage is plain all followers of Christ must abandon all to follow the one true savior. A prayerful reading of Luke Chapter fourteen, the Holy Spirit, illuminated to me the emphasis of the chapter was not the standard but the teaching of Jesus, in the first twenty - four verses of the chapter. The word "Compel, in verse twenty-three, is the key. And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
The Greek word translated "compel" is very strong. It is the imperative of "anankazo," meaning "force," "compel," or even "drive." John Wesley gives this comment on "compel them to come in," "with all the violence of love, and the force of God's Word. Such compulsion, and such only…was used by Christ and the Apostles" (John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, Baker, 1983 reprint, volume I, note on Luke 14:23). Plummer points out that "The compelling was by persuasion" (Alfred Plummer, The International Critical Commentary, Clark, 1952, note on Luke 14:23). We are to persuade you to come into the church. NLT Favors Plummer with use of urge-which seems week in context. ASV uses Constrain which Implies pressure to say yes. Surprisingly NET also uses urge. Best translation for modern usage is Compel used by NIV, NASB, NKJV, and RSV.
In the verse twenty-five through thirty-five Jesus is demonstrating how servants are to urge the crowds to come into the Kingdom of God. Notice the words of Savior are blunt, persuasive, and leave no wiggle room. More importantly are Jesus actions, he does not use shame, manipulation or violence for the crowds to enter His millennial feast. As disciples, we are commanded to forcefully persuade the lost to enter God's banquet!
Zach; initially in our discussion of this pericope, you urged me that all who followed Jesus are called to the same standard. The standard after prayerfully reading the passage is found in verses twenty-six and twenty-seven. If anyone comes to Me and does not [n]hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
And the passage is plain all followers of Christ must abandon all to follow the one true savior. A prayerful reading of Luke Chapter fourteen, the Holy Spirit, illuminated to me the emphasis of the chapter was not the standard but the teaching of Jesus, in the first twenty - four verses of the chapter. The word "Compel, in verse twenty-three, is the key. And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the highways and along the hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house may be filled.
The Greek word translated "compel" is very strong. It is the imperative of "anankazo," meaning "force," "compel," or even "drive." John Wesley gives this comment on "compel them to come in," "with all the violence of love, and the force of God's Word. Such compulsion, and such only…was used by Christ and the Apostles" (John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, Baker, 1983 reprint, volume I, note on Luke 14:23). Plummer points out that "The compelling was by persuasion" (Alfred Plummer, The International Critical Commentary, Clark, 1952, note on Luke 14:23). We are to persuade you to come into the church. NLT Favors Plummer with use of urge-which seems week in context. ASV uses Constrain which Implies pressure to say yes. Surprisingly NET also uses urge. Best translation for modern usage is Compel used by NIV, NASB, NKJV, and RSV.
In the verse twenty-five through thirty-five Jesus is demonstrating how servants are to urge the crowds to come into the Kingdom of God. Notice the words of Savior are blunt, persuasive, and leave no wiggle room. More importantly are Jesus actions, he does not use shame, manipulation or violence for the crowds to enter His millennial feast. As disciples, we are commanded to forcefully persuade the lost to enter God's banquet!
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